22 August 2021 It’s easy to overlook flats from the 50s like this one opposite the #StKildaBotanicalGardens in Dickens Street; a bit boxy and plain (with jaunty balustrade) - but often spacious and light inside, and quite spacious too, especially compared with current product. And there’s a large top floor one that’s got original cabinetry … Continue reading 50s flats Dickens Street, Elwood →

Repost 2018: The front on one, or the side one that doesn’t have buildings rising up behind ? #SalvationArmy Training Garrison, 1900, designed by Brigadier Edward Saunders, cofounder of the Army in Australia, and who clearly liked the #redbrick #castellated style, used on all the Army buildings in one form or another (at least in … Continue reading Salvation Army Training Garrison →

😮 repost 2019: This Is The Show. The #GeorgeBallroom in the early 70s was a #stripperbar, strictly #adultsonly, back when #StKilda was at its nadir (or peak ?) - I remember going to Luna Park as a kid being driven down #FitzroyStreet and mum saying ‘lock the doors’ ! It was called #TheBirdcage (though Les … Continue reading St Kilda Strippers →

This huge place on #BeaconsfieldParade was built in 1883-6 for the Carmelite sisters, who were attached to the Our Lady of Mt Carmel in Middle Park nearby. Like some other home for Catholic clergy like Presbyteries, it’s basically an Italian house, but with a solid Gothic arcaded verandah (the architect is unknown). It’s now occupied … Continue reading Carmelite Convent, Albert Park →

22 August 2020: Nice big Victorian house in #BurnettStreetStKilda with a bit more richness than usual - double height arcaded verandah, with barleycorn columns and balustrading, including under the window ledges, which have cast iron frills too. Colours a bit gaudy - they are heritage colours but the Victorians would not have painted it two … Continue reading Victorian villas, Burnett Street St Kilda →

Repost 2017: The #LawrenceHouse built in 1860 in Queen Street near the #QueenVictoriaMarket has seen better days - when I took this in march, clearly the stone of the #cornice was flaking off and probably had more knocked off before it fell off- and it had been empty at least a year (it was melb's … Continue reading Lawrence House, Queen Street, 1860 →

Repost 2018: #ManchesterHouse, #FlindersLane, 1912, #BatesPeeblesandSmart, nice late Edwardian #redbrick, a bit Chicago School big bay windows too. Thought it was Manchester the city but no, it used to mean #householdlinen, which btw is mostly cotton not linen. Flinders Lane was home to the #ragtrade mainly warehouses but also workshops, from the 1900s to the … Continue reading Manchester House, Flinders Lane, 1912 →

Repost this day 2 years ago : A lot of fuss today about ‘heritage listing a freeway’ but it’s actually the bridges on the #EasternFreeway that are focus of the listing, and they’re great ! The first and last time engineers were asked to make them interesting ‘without regard to cost’. The lead design engineer … Continue reading Eastern Freeway – heritage ? →

Pics 2024, words from 2019: Marion Terrace in Burnett Street St Kilda, 1883, always a fave, and a bit of a surprise in a street of Vic and Edw villas and postwar flats. Presumably the developer here thought just being grand 10 room #terracehouses in #StKilda wasn’t enough, they needed something extra - they’re up … Continue reading Marion Terrace, St Kilda →

Repost 7 years ago in 2014: When I first went by this one a few years ago I though it was a 60s office block I had somehow never noticed before, all gridded, plain, #straightup from footpath, no setbacks; but no, just an earlyish one of many the new #apartmenttowers in the #victoriamarket area that … Continue reading 60s style apartment tower →